How to Sell Your Data to AI Companies in 2026

You sell your data to AI companies by licensing a copy of internal business records, such as support tickets, CRM history, project files or lab data, to buyers who use them to train AI systems. You keep ownership of the original. Before you talk to anyone, list what you hold, confirm you have the right to license it, and remove names and identifiers. Smelted is a free matching service that does this work for you: it finds the buyers who fit your company, gives a ballpark range, and introduces you to two or three of them. You approve every introduction, and your company pays nothing.

What AI companies actually buy

Most AI buyers want records that show how work gets done, not public web pages. Examples include:

• Support ticket histories and the replies agents wrote
• CRM notes, deal stages and account history
• Standard operating procedures and internal process documents
• Project files, engineering tickets and code repositories
• CAD or architecture drawings
• Lab notebooks and experiment data

The more years of records you have, and the more connected they are (a ticket linked to a customer, a customer linked to a deal, a deal linked to a project), the more useful they are to a buyer. The value depends mostly on how much you have, how far back it goes and how connected it is. It does not depend on how polished your files look.

Who this fits

The companies that most often reach this step work in four areas:

• Staffing and recruiting firms, with candidate, placement and client history in tools like Bullhorn
• Engineering and architecture firms, with drawings and project records in AutoCAD or Revit
• B2B software companies, with support and engineering history in Zendesk, Jira or GitHub, and customer data in Salesforce or HubSpot
• Science labs and biotech R&D teams, with experiment records in Benchling or similar tools

The owner, a founder or a C-level executive usually makes the call. Founders and C-level leaders made up most of the interested replies Smelted received in the last 90 days.

Smelted's buyers focus on companies with roughly 50 to 500 employees (labs from about 30 to 500), founded in 2022 or earlier. If you are smaller than that, the buyers who take smaller companies pay less, so the offer is different. Ask us directly and we will tell you honestly what to expect.

How the process works

The usual sequence has five steps.

1. Inventory. List the systems that hold your records and how far back each one goes. Note which records mention people, clients or contracts, since those need the most cleanup.
2. Check your rights. Confirm that your contracts with clients, employees and vendors allow you to license internal records. Where they don't, leave those records out.
3. Get a valuation before you talk price. A ballpark range comes first. A firmer number usually comes after a buyer reviews a sample.
4. Choose what goes in and who you meet. You decide which systems, date ranges and record types are included, and which buyers you speak with.
5. Sign, deliver and get paid. Once you sign, you hand over the agreed copy and the buyer reviews it.

Troveo's guide makes the same point about the first steps: inventory what you hold, confirm rights, and get a valuation before negotiating (Troveo).

How Smelted works

Smelted is a matching service. It is not a broker that takes your data and resells it. Here is what happens when you use it:

• Smelted looks at your company profile and finds which buyers fit.
• It gives you a ballpark range. It does not give a fixed price.
• It introduces you to two or three matching buyers.
• You keep ownership. What you license is a copy, not the original.
• Names, contact details and IDs are removed before anything is shared.
• The buyer pays Smelted's fee. You pay nothing, and there is no equity involved.

You can start with the two-minute form at smelted.ai/get-started. It asks for your headcount, your tools and how far back your records go. If you have 50 or more employees and prefer to talk first, you can book a short call at calendly.com/smelted/intro-call. If you would rather speak to someone now, call Chris at 954-682-7560.

What it pays and how long it takes

We do not publish a dollar figure here, because the value depends on your records and a buyer has to review a sample before a firm number exists. What the market looks like is useful context, though.

Troveo reports that it has paid out more than 20 million dollars to over 7,000 rights holders who license video, audio, gaming, robotics and business data to AI buyers (Troveo). The same guide says disclosed deals range from about 10 million dollars for a company archive to more than 250 million over five years for a major publisher, while marketplace licensing prices are well below those headline deals (Troveo). Headline numbers come from large, unusual archives. Most company datasets are much smaller, so expect a range that reflects your own records.

Timing is the other question people ask. For Smelted, plan on one to three months from your first call to payment. Buyers' payment terms usually come a few weeks to two months after signing.

For comparison, micro1, another AI data company, says it takes up to about 30 days to review and accept delivered data, then pays within 30 days of an invoice. A commentary on micro1's published terms puts the total at roughly 30 to 60 days from handing over data to payment, plus any time spent before that (Tom Flann on LinkedIn).

What to check before you sign

Several things slow deals down or reduce what you receive.

• Missing rights. Records that include customer data, employee data or third-party material often need to be left out or cleaned first.
• Identifiers left in. Names, emails, phone numbers and account IDs have to be removed before anything is shared.
• Unclear scope. Agree in writing on which systems, which years and which record types are included.
• Unread terms. Read the license. Check whether it grants a copy, how long it lasts, and what the buyer may do with it.

Legal questions depend on your contracts and your jurisdiction. Smelted cannot give legal or compliance approval, so have your counsel review the license before you sign.

Common questions

Can AI companies sell your data?

AI companies can license data they are allowed to use. The question is whether the data is yours to license in the first place. Records that you own and that your contracts permit you to share are the ones companies typically license. Records that belong to clients or employees usually are not.

How much money do companies make selling your data?

It varies widely. Troveo's disclosed examples run from about 10 million dollars for a whole archive to much larger sums for multi-year deals with major publishers (Troveo). Most business datasets are far smaller. The honest answer is that the value depends on your records, so the first step is to see what you have.

Is it legal for companies to sell data?

It can be, when the company has the rights to the data and the records are anonymized before sale. Whether a specific sale is legal depends on your contracts, your data protection duties and your location. Get advice from a lawyer on your own situation.

What is AI data licensing?

AI data licensing means granting a buyer permission to use a copy of your records to train an AI system, for a fee, under agreed terms. You keep the original and control what is included.

How do I get started?

Fill in the two-minute form at smelted.ai/get-started. Smelted will look at your profile and reply with the buyers that fit and a ballpark range. If you have 50 or more employees, you can also book a short call at calendly.com/smelted/intro-call.

Sources

• How to Sell Data to AI Companies
• How to sell data to AI companies: A step-by-step guide for US businesses